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Banned Blatter keeps apartment — and pay

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Banned Blatter keeps apartment — and pay
Blatter at press conference after ban ruling on Monday. Photo: Michèle Limina/AFP

Fifa has told its banned leader Sepp Blatter he will have to leave his presidential apartment in Zurich by February 26th when a successor is elected, a source close to the world body said on Tuesday.

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The apartment in an old Zurich house that has been divided is one of the perks Blatter, 79, will lose after his eight-year suspension pronounced on Monday by Fifa's ethics court.
   
He automatically loses his Fifa mobile phone and his professional email address, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
   
But the disgraced Fifa leader, found guilty of a conflict of interest over a two-million-franc ($2 million) payment to Fifa vice-president Michel Platini does not lose all privileges, the source said.
   
"He is still protected by his labour contract" under Swiss law, said the source.
   
So Blatter will get his salary — for which he has refused to reveal the amount — his Fifa car and apartment until the contract ends on February 26th.
   
A Fifa congress is to be held on that day to elect a new president and agree reforms to the scandal-tainted body.

Meanwhile, Blatter's lawyers said he is ready to take "all legal steps" to clear his name after he was banned from football for eight years by a Fifa court over ethics violations.

"President Blatter is eager to present his arguments to the appeal committee," his Zurich-based lawyer Lorenz Erni and Virginia-based counsel Richard Cullen said in a joint statement issued on Tuesday.
   
After Fifa announced his suspension on Monday, Blatter held a defiant press conference in which he said he would first challenge the suspension at a Fifa appeals committee before going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if necessary.
   
"President Blatter is prepared to take all legal steps to prevail on the remaining charges and clear his name," his lawyers said.
     
Blatter has not hidden his desire to secure reinstatement in time for a Fifa congress on February 26th, when his replacement will be elected.
   
But despite his impending appeals, Blatter's chances of ever returning to Fifa may have suffered a fatal blow with Monday's verdict.

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